Shoe counter



Patented Aug. 27, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Arthur CQSewall, Auburn, Maine Application March 2, 1938, Serialy No. 193,496

6 Claims.

M'y invention relates to shoe counters, and to .materials from which said counters may be made. The invention, which has among its objects the provision of a counter of improved construction, and of improved materials from which the counter maybe readily fabricated, will be bestunderstood from the following description when read in the light of the accompanying drawing, the scope of the invention being more particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing: Fig. 1 is a perspective of a counter according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal medial vertical section of r the counter according to Fig. 1 with parts broken away;

Fig. 3 is a plan of a blank from which the counter according to Figs. 1 and 2 may be molded;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3 on an enlarged scale;

Fig. 4a is a section of the resilient insert according to Figs. 3 and 4 on a still further enlarged scale;

Fig. 5 is a section corresponding to Fig. 4 showing the counter blank before skiving its edges;

Fig. 6 is a section o-f a strip from which the counters may be out;

Fig. 7 is a section on the line 'I,-1 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is a modified form of strip from which the counters may be cut; and

Fig. 9 is a section on the line 9--9 of Fig. 8.

Referring to the drawing, which illustrates the preferred form of the invention, the counter is provided with a lower side wall portion- I and an upper side wall portion 3, the lower ange 5 of the counter being formed integrally with the lower side wall portion I thereof.

Preferably the portions I and 3 of the counter are formed of relatively stiff material such as berboard. The upper edge portion of the counter is skived| as indicated at 'I, and the flange portion 5 as indicated at 9, so that these portions will be relatively iiexible and will merge with the adjacent surfaces of the other portions of the shoe. If desired, the portions I and 3 need not be of the same material, for example, the portion- I may be of berboard and the portion 3 may be of impregnated bibulous paper or fiannel.

As illustrated, the adjacent edges II and I3 of the upper and lower side wall portions of the counter are preferably slightly spaced, for example, but without limitation thereto, from gli to 1h", and these portions are skived on their outer surfaces as indicated at I5. Uniting the two porin their normal positions sho-wn inFigs. 1 and 2.

(cl. acs-6e).

tions I and 3 o-f theV counter is an insert I'I of resilient material, preferably rubber. Conveniently this insert is formed with beveled surfaces I9 corresponding to the skived surfaces I5 of the side Wall portions of the counter, and is united 5 to those skived surfaces by cement, preferably rubber cement. f

The insert I'I in effect forms a spring hinge resiliently tending tohold the portions I and 3Y 10 it has been, under some circumstances, a defect of counters constructed with `a stiff lower p ortion and a exible upperpo'rtio'n as, for example, .the -co'unter shown by applicants Patent No. 1,968,572, that when the shoe is worn the upper flexible portion, particularly at the rearward portion of the counter, does not spring back into normal position when pressed inwardly. With the present counter, preferably the body of the portion 3 is stiffer than that portion would be if made of ordinary rubber impregnated bibulous paper or iiannel, and to that end preferably is made of berboard or other material of equivalent stiffness'. By such construction the defects of prior counters are entirely avoided, because the insert I'I forming a resilient hinge tends to return the portion 3 to its normal position when itis pressed inwardly, the resilient effectv of the hinge being accentuated at the rearward portions o-f the counter because the strip forming the insert I1 in the finished counter is bent longitudinally thereof into an approximately U jor horseshoe shape as shown by the drawing.

As a convenient way of producing counters having like properties, the blanks. therefor may be cut from elongated strips formed according to Figs. 6 and' 7. As shown, this strip consists of elongated zones 2I of the material of which the portions I ofthe counters are formed and an elongated zone 23 of the material of which the 0 portions 3 of the counters are formed', these Zones consisting of bands vof such material. The adja-y cent edges of the zones 2I and 23 are skived to form the bevels I5 of the counter, and cemented to these bevels are elongated strips I"I of rubber 45 or other resilient material hereinbefore described.

Thecounters may be cut from these strips, as indicated by the lines 25 in Fig. 6, to form blanks which on the line 'I-'I of Fig. 6 have the crosssection indicated by Fig. 5, which blanks are then 50 skived as indicated in Figs. 3 and- 4 and are subsequently molded to give the 'counter the shape shown by Figs. l and 2.

According to the modied form of strip shown by Figs. 8 and 9 the central zone 21 of the strip is formed of a band of the material of the portions l of the counters, while at opposite sides of this zone are zones 29 formed of bands of the material of thel portions 3 of the counters, adjacent edges of these bands being skived, as indicated at l5, and being united by cementing thereto elongated strips l1 of rubber or the like heretofore described. The counter blanks may be cut from the strip according to Figs. 8 and 9, as indicated by the lines 3l in Fig. 8.

It will be understood that within the scope of the appended claims wide deviations may be made from the embodiments of the invention herein described Without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim: v

1. A shoe counter having a generally U-shaped side wall portion comprising, at at least the bend of said U, a lower longitudinally extending relatively stii portion, an upper longitudinally extending relatively flexible, relatively non-resilient portion, and a longitudinally extending resilient of said U, a lower longitudinally extending relatively stii portion, an upper longitudinally extending relatively exiblerelatively non-resilient portion, and a longitudinally extending band of resilient material united by overlapping joints with the lower edge portion of said upper wall portion and the upper edge portion of said lower wall portion.

3. A shoe counter having a generally U-shaped side wall portion comprising upper and lower bands extending from one end to the other of said wall, the upper edge of said upper band being beveled to approximately a feather edge and being relatively non-resilient and the lower band being relatively stiiT, and a band of relatively resilient material extending from one end to the other of said wall united by beveled overlapping joints to the adjacent edges of said upper and lower bands.

4. A counter according to claim 3 in which said upper and lower bands are of berboard and the band of resilient material is rubber.

5. A shoe counter having a generally U-shaped side wall portion comprising a longitudinally extending relatively narrow upper band extending from one end to the other of said wall and having widely beveled upper and lower edges, the upper edge being relatively non-resilient, and a lower relatively wide, relatively stiff band extending from one end to the other of said wall and having a widely beveled upper edge, the adjacent edges of which bands are slightly spaced; and a band of resilient material having upper and lower beveled edges complementary to said beveled edges of said bands and cemented thereto.

6. A counter according to claim 5 in which said upper and lower bands are of berboard and the band of resilient material is rubber.

ARTHUR C. SEWALL. 

